We’ve seen an important (though far from decisive) battle in the slow-motion civil war the nation is undergoing: The blue states want to secede not from America but from Americanism. They reject the American republic of God-fearing individuals in favor of the European ideal, which has only been government by aristocracy: either an aristocracy of birth or, nowadays, of ruling know-it-alls — of post-religious, globalist intellectuals (a.k.a. PORGIs). As I’ve said before — many others have too — you can’t graduate class after class after class of left-indoctrinated ignoramuses without paying the price. Last night was a down payment.

But we’ve won civil wars and preserved the Union before. We’ll do it again — if we face up to the fact that we need to replace our schools and colleges now; the grace period has lasted a generation, but it’s over. I know we can do it and I’m pretty sure we will do it. Americanism is too strong and brilliant and young to die.

But it’s a slo-mo war, right? Like, we all die of old age before they make contact.

I love the idea of Americanism as a quasi-religion. (To the waiter: Hold the arugula, please, we’re Americanists.)

Baud: They literally believe they are on the Union side. Lincoln was a Republican, don’t you know, and slavery was a liberal institution (it encouraged dependency in the slaves, whereas Lincoln wanted them to go out and become independent contractors).

if we face up to the fact that we need to replace our schools and colleges now

This sounds like a most grand and glorious project. There must be thousands of these, what do you call them, schools? Thousands of them spread all over the country, in different states, different local districts, which conservatives claim to want to empower. Not sure how something so majestic as “replacing” the schools and colleges would work in real life, but I’ve no doubt some of the illustrious researchers at the various Koch-funded institutes could draft some papers and hold some seminars and some such things in the next few years to talk about it. The rest of us can go about the actual work of work.

These people are delusional. This is known by all BJers. The thing is, every so often some professional wingnut feels the need to show the world just how deluded he/she actually is. Like deluded to the nth degree (Carl Sagan’s voice here, with the word BILLIONS repeating with much reverb).

@Baud: Why the same one where Romney had 400+ electoral votes locked up, carbon dioxide is transparent to infrared, man walked with the dinosaurs, and the Founders were fundamentalist theocrats, of course.

if we face up to the fact that we need to replace our schools and colleges now; the grace period has lasted a generation, but it’s over

Who the fuck is “we,” asshole? Take your grace period and go piss up a rope.

an aristocracy…nowadays, of ruling know-it-alls — of post-religious, globalist intellectuals

So, down with meritocracy, eh? Nevermind that, if you went back to the late 18th century to look for “post-religious, globalist intellectuals,” you probably couldn’t find a more fitting group than our largely Deist/Quaker/Unitarian founding fathers.

This is the text of an e-mail I received this morning from my father. Normally I wouldn’t read his e-mail the morning after an election, but he’s currently in China so I thought it might be about something related to actual family things.

“The USA is doomed, we are too stupid to deserve out past freedoms and economic powers. Spain, Greece, socialism here we come. Early retirement here I come.”

We’ve seen an important (though far from decisive) battle in the slow-motion civil war the nation is undergoing: The blue states want to secede not from America but from Americanism. … But we’ve won civil wars and preserved the Union before. We’ll do it again …

I think someone needs to remind Gelernter that the blue states won the last Civil War too.

Ah yes, nothing could better represent the heritage of the Sainted Founders of the United States than a bunch of theocratic Know-Nothings who reject the Enlightenment and do not believe the populace should be exposed to new ideas or enjoy the right to govern its own affairs.

I am fascinated that someone is openly taking a stand against meritocracy, which is previously what government by democratically elected, broad-minded smart people was considered.

Happily, this is the 101st Chairborne we’re talking about here, so I doubt it will come to Confederacy 2: Defective Boogaloo. They’re used to paying brown people to go to war for them, but that won’t work as well if the war is against brown Americans.

They don’t know history, they don’t know economics, they don’t know any of the physical sciences…all they know is that someone, somewhere, wants their fucking stuff, and they’re terrified they’ll lose it.

We’ve seen an important (though far from decisive) battle in the slow-motion civil war the nation is undergoing: The blue states want to secede not from America but from Americanism. They reject the American republic of God-fearing individuals in favor…..

I realized something hilarious this morning: the Tea Party has now cost the GOP *five* Senate seats. That alone has been enough to keep the Senate blue.

What does this mean? It means that we have the Tea Party to thank for the fact that the GOP lacks the numbers in Senate to impeach Obama. If the Tea Party had never existed, Obama might well face a genuine risk of impeachment. Because of them, he doesn’t.

This sounds like a most grand and glorious project. There must be thousands of these, what do you call them, schools? Thousands of them spread all over the country, in different states, different local districts, which conservatives claim to want to empower. Not sure how something so majestic as “replacing” the schools and colleges would work in real life, but I’ve no doubt some of the illustrious researchers at the various Koch-funded institutes could draft some papers and hold some seminars and some such things in the next few years to talk about it. The rest of us can go about the actual work of work.

Mostly it involves busting the teacher’s unions and having the state hand over money to private charter or religious schools that coincidentally teach that God personally handed Karl Rove the Republican party platform on two tablets of stone.

They reject the American republic of God-fearing individuals in favor of the European ideal, which has only been government by aristocracy: either an aristocracy of birth or, nowadays, of ruling know-it-alls

What’s Wrong With Kansas covered this pretty well, although I don’t think the author foresaw the extremes that the modern “conservative cons” (as he terms them) would go to. And yes, they are calling for civil war, but they’re going to have to fight it out within their own party first.

He can still be impeached. The slime controls the House. The only adult among them is Boner, just barely, if he falls, Cantor takes over, and all bets are off. The thing is, there is ZERO chance of conviction with a Dem controlled Senate, which has the final say on removal of a President from office.

So it would be, as they say, a useless, futile gesture on the part of the Rethugs to attempt it.

WTF is a PORGI? I got to see “Porgy & Bess” on Broadway once as a young lad…

I hate, hate, hate equating religious people with a very narrow set of conservative “family values”. I know a religious Republican who is extremely tolerant and doesn’t buy into the family values BS. His entire Methodist church is like that. He & his agnostic, liberal wife raised 2 great kids.

I know Catholics of various stripes who are pro-choice (they would choose to keep the baby themselves) and Democratic while also attending Mass on Wednesdays & Sundays. A lot of them think the social justice portion of Catholic faith in action is a big piece of the pie.

I am an atheist but I respect the right of folks to believe whatever happy horsesh*t they like. The diversity the right hates doesn’t just exist in terms of skin color, our immigrant status or who we love, but is also reflected in the wide application of faith and morals within our society.

Not that I think what he’s saying is defensible (or even really sane), but I think I’ll cut David Gelernter just a little bit of slack. He lost part of his right hand and an eye to one of the Unabomber’s bombs (sent to him for his work in Computer Science). I think you’re allowed to become a little crazy after an experience like that.

What does this mean? It means that we have the Tea Party to thank for the fact that the GOP lacks the numbers in Senate to impeach Obama. If the Tea Party had never existed, Obama might well face a genuine risk of impeachment. Because of them, he doesn’t.

If the Tea Party had never existed, Dems might have kept the House and we’d have two more years of better legislation passed and the economy might also be further along.

@Cassidy: I have a searchable history here, as does everyone, and in that history you will find since day one I have been arguing that liberals need to arm themselves en masse load up on ammo and to actually learn how to use the damn things.

Their rhetoric has been openly exterminationist since the 90s – twenty years. I assume that they mean it.

So he hates ‘Aristocracy’, yet if I’m not mistaken, the REPUBLICANS are the ones that haven’t won a presidential election without a Nixon or Bush on the ticket since 1933. Talk about your ‘royal’ families.

North Dakota Democrat Heidi Heikamp has won a U.S. Senate seat, defeating Republican Rick Berg. Heitkamp won by 3000 votes, and her victory is pending a final count which will include absentee ballots which arrived late but are postmarked in time to be counted.

Yes, the party of GW Bush (son of a President), John McCain (son and grandson of Admirals) and Willard Romney (filthy-rich son of a Governor and serious Presidential candidate) has much to teach the rest of us about the evils of aristocracy of birth, and self-entitled assholes who want to rule.
Meritocracy is kryptonite to this party of overprivileged twats.

They reject the American republic of God-fearing individuals in favor of the European ideal, which has only been government by aristocracy: either an aristocracy of birth or, nowadays, of ruling know-it-alls — of post-religious, globalist intellectuals (a.k.a. PORGIs).

Shorter: rich aristocrats should rule.

You say you want a revolution, well, you know.

In a Civil War between the NRO crowd and real folks, the battle would be laughably short, and painful for the conservative fools.

I can’t believe these fools. To evoke one of my favorite movies, Tombstone:

Wyatt Earp: All right, Clanton… you called down the thunder, well now you’ve got it!

I am fascinated that someone is openly taking a stand against meritocracy

@300baud: What do you think all the union-bashing has been all about for the last three years? Yeah, the 1% want it to pad the profit margin, but all the proles crawling over glass to vote for that shit are just pissed that the “union thugs” did better with their lives than they did, with their highest life achievement comprised of sitting in front of the tube in the double-wide without breaking the chair.

Not sure how something so majestic as “replacing” the schools and colleges would work in real life…

Gelernter is a computer scientist whose shtick is that schools from kindergarten through college are sapping and impurifying our precious bodily fluids with liberal indoctrination. His solution is to put all knowledge on line and thus free students to educate themselves in a liberalism-free atmosphere. IOW, home-schooling for all, bitchez!

@Villago Delenda Est:
Sure, they technically could, but what would the articles of impeachment state?
“He gaves us a sadz.”
I know Ford said in 1970 that high crimes & misdemeanors can be whatever Congress thinks, but I don’t think the Republicans would be that entirely crazy.

Late to the party, but the last time any of these assholes tried to “start the revolution,” a federal building in Oklahoma City got blown up, the rest of the nation got damn pissed, and the wingnuts fucking pissed their pants in terror at how close they came to getting vast numbers of the True Believers rounded up and thrown into prison.

Totally meaningless in reference to today’s Republican party. MY family was Republican back then as well. It was more of a matter of geography than ideology. Northerners were mostly Republican and Southerns were mostly Democratic. A lot has changed since then.

The impressive part of it to me is her ability to blame absolutely anybody but herself or the beliefs she has. It’s her friends. Its the libertarians. It’s the sneaky British, talking up their socialized medicine at the Olympics. It’s YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter: tools of the left. It’s Sarah Palin, who failed to run.

And it’s not just the lost election that you jerks are to blame for (by not sharing posts). It’s also their fault that she had potato chips for dinner.

I feel sad for her. So much hate. So much anger based on things that aren’t even true. So little compassion. So much butterscotch schnapps.

What does this mean? It means that we have the Tea Party to thank for the fact that the GOP lacks the numbers in Senate to impeach Obama.

Except that:

1) The Senate technically does not impeach the President. Impeachment takes place in the House and is essentially equivalent to an indictment. The Senate conducts a trial of the person who was impeached.

2) Conviction in the Senate requires a 2/3 vote, not a simple majority, which is why Andrew Johnson wasn’t thrown out of power and why the whole Clinton imbroglio was such a waste of time. It’s also why Nancy Pelosi was right to take impeachment of Bush off the table. The Republicans were never going to vote him out, and it would have looked just as bad to a large swathe of the public as the Clinton mess did.

@Bob In Portland: “How do the feds handle legal marijuana”? They ignore it. Same as they always do, and then send ‘cease and desist or else we arrest’ letters to the largest growers. For all intents and purposes CA has had legal weed for many years now, and that’s how they’ve dealt with it. I don’t see why they’d stop now.
Except wouldn’t it be cool if Obama just lights up a j on the front steps of the White House and reminds everyone that he’s done running for office. The collective Fox News freakout would be worth it.

@The Moar You Know: I’ve been armed before. I sold the guns when I was unemployed so i could buy groceries. I’ve been looking into getting guns again, though, and I’m always joking about the Zombie Apocalypse with the wife and kids.

@Bob In Portland: DC is different from PR in that it is just a central jurisdiction of a major metropolitan area, whereas PR is a large enough region (larger than DE and RI) to have several separate urban areas. In addition, if DC is made a state, it will be two solid Senate votes for the expansion of every government program, especially defense. I’m not comfortable with that at all, and I am somebody who favors the expansion of many government programs.

“How do the feds handle legal marijuana”? They ignore it. Same as they always do, and then send ‘cease and desist or else we arrest’ letters to the largest growers. For all intents and purposes CA has had legal weed for many years now, and that’s how they’ve dealt with it.

In CA, medical marijuana shops are being shut down all over the place. And using the IRS to deny regular business deductions is kicking the crap out of legal growers.

@NotMax: I don’t think so. Arlington County was returned to Virginia without requiring an amendment. There’s no reason that I know of preventing Congress from turning most of DC into a territory, and then into a state. Entirely undoing DC might be trickier, but there’s nothing saying it can’t be done. Here are the relevant sections:

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States,

The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States…

There are certainly arguments both ways, but I take as precedent the necessity of amendment (rather than direct legislation) the case of the 23rd amendment granting presidential voting status and electors to D.C. residents, something previously only applicable to states.

They reject the American republic of God-fearing individuals in favor of the European ideal, which has only been government by aristocracy:

You know, it’s incredibly fucking rich of a people who idolize the Founding Fathers (a good chunk of them slave-owning feudal lords, who set up a system in which only rich men could vote) and believe they did everything perfectly and every deviation from that was a crime against humanity, to piss and moan about anyone favoring government by “aristocracy.”

OMG, I am crying that is so funny. I can barely type I’m laughing so hard. I’m only 5 minutes in and the best part is the caption explaining that she’s been swilling Butternips and water with beer chasers. This is hilarious!

Everyone please listen to this insane self-described “bitch” who genuinely thinks that the real reason Obama won is because not enough Republican “motherfuckers” would share her crazy rants on Facebook.

Totally meaningless in reference to today’s Republican party. MY family was Republican back then as well. It was more of a matter of geography than ideology. Northerners were mostly Republican and Southerns were mostly Democratic. A lot has changed since then.

True. Hell, most African-Americans were Republicans until 1964, at which point Jackie Robinson came out of the GOP convention and publicly compared it to a Klan rally.

Asshats like this bloviating buffoon would load their pants if there was another civil war and they were required to get off their asses and grab a rifle. Tough talk, weak knees. And how many civil wars does this fu*kstick think we’ve had?!? Also.

That’s right folks, the White folks from the South and Middle of the Country are so flippin’ mad that the Usurper won again that they want revolution. But why is anyone surprised that the NR would come out and say it. They pander to the faded glory of the Confederacy and the masses of ill-educated poor folks in their strongholds. This is merely the trumpet call to continue their pyhrric fight to but the non-whites back in the place they believe they should never have been allowed to leave in the fist place. They do this by instilling ignorance and intolerance. And part of the brainwashing is though religion. These traits are not natural behaviors in children, rather they are learned. Ignorance and intolerance can be cured but it is hard to do so when the educational institutions in those Red States have been corrupted by anti-science anti-fact creationist curricula, and religious edumication. Defeat the anti-educationists and the grifters like Michelle Rhee and you are on the way to killing the base that allows the NR to exist.

The world’s best minds flock to the MITs and UC-Berkelys and Northwesterns because they seek discovery at the highest level. This idiot wants to reduce the experience to confirming a selective reading of the bible, the constitution, Atlas Shrugged – and parenthetically the lazy blacks and mexicans…

The current conservative movement is a rejection of pluralism and intellectualism. It’s pathological.

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